Imagine yourself in a boat, floating down a beautiful river. As you go along, what do you notice? One of the first things you may notice is that as you move down river, the river changes. In fact it seems to be changing all of the time. It is wide in some parts, narrow in others. Some parts of it seem very tame while other parts seem to be fast and wild. Some parts of the river seem quite deep whereas other parts appear to be quite shallow. None of that is very surprising; it is simply the nature of a river to behave that way. If you want to travel on a river, you ought to be ready to deal with the various aspects of each part of the river. That’s just the way it is.   Many great spiritual teachers have compared life to traveling on a river. They teach that the river is a lot like life, your life or any life. They say that the river cuts through the landscape and carries you along for the ride. Sometimes its pace is overwhelming and you move along at such speed that everything seems a blur. Other times it seems monotonously slow and boring.   Experienced river riders have their own wisdom to share with anyone who wants to enjoy a trip down the river.  Here is what they say:           First, resistance to the river is futile. You will never be able to change the course of the river yourself. Success depends on your ability to ride it out, responding appropriately to its twists and turns.            Second, choose the right boat and use the right equipment. If you choose the wrong boat, you will most likely spend more time in the water than in the boat. You’ll need to know how to steer the boar, how to navigate rapids and how to “get out of the way” every now and then. Also, it is mighty important to have a life preserver.           Third, plan on getting wet. It’s part of the ride. If you spend all of your time trying to stay dry, you’ll never truly enjoy the river or your ride.     Those bits of advice from experienced river riders are also good advice for us as we try to negotiate daily life.  The one thing that is constant in everyone’s life is the one thing almost everyone does not like – change. Many people hate change; they spend much of their energy fighting it. True wisdom lies in realizing that resisting change is much like resisting the current of a river, futile. We must simply learn to negotiate its twists and turns.   Getting into the “right boat” for the trip down the river is important too. A good relationship with God may be just the kind of boat you need. Good friends and close family support are also necessary equipment for life’s journey. So too is the life preserver of prayer. All of these are important.   And finally the knowledge that you definitely will get quite wet is also important. Every one of us makes mistakes, we make decisions which often land us in places we don’t want to be. Yet, sometimes it’s our biggest mistakes that have taught us the most and have brought out the best in us.    Traveling through life is very much like riding a river, it’s is all at once a beautiful, exciting, dangerous, unpredictable and, yes, quite a wet experience.